Digital Commons Network^™

Tumor Suppressor Mir-489 Regulates Proliferation, Autophagy And Overcomes Drug-Resistance In Breast Cancer, Mithil Soni

Theses and Dissertations

Despite decades of extensive research, breast cancer remains an untamable disease due to complexity and heterogeneity of disease. It is for this very reason, most efforts targeting a single pathway did not yield satisfactory results. Discovery of a novel therapeutic agents targeting multiple pathways, such as miRNAs, holds promise for future cancer therapy. This study was aimed to explore therapeutic potential of one such microRNA, miR-489. In the first study, we identified autophagy as a novel pathway targeted by miR-489 and reported ULK1 and LAPTM4B to be a direct of miR-489 target. We showed that miR-489 mediated autophagy inhibition and …

Politics And The Built Environment: Civic Structures Of Eighteenth Century Williamsburg, Virginia And Charles Town, South Carolina, Paul Bartow

Theses and Dissertations

This study compares Williamsburg and Charles Town as colonial capital cities with attention to how their political culture was reflected through public buildings and the built environment. Drawing on traveler accounts, contemporary descriptions, government records, and maps, this thesis analyzes the character-defining features of public architecture in each city. I examine the capitol buildings, governor’s residences, churches, and town plans to see how the colonists in these respective cities viewed their society, their political order, and their place within the British Empire.

I argue that due to its development in the late seventeenth century and its reliance on the architectural …

An Existentialist Approach To Teaching Writing: Anguish, Bad Faith, And Seriousness In Composition, Andreas Peter Herzog

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims at developing a model concept for the teaching of ethics in the composition classroom through the use of existentialism in the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre. Overall, the gap I am trying to fill with my dissertation is a lack of awareness of how much Sartre actually fits rhetorical theory and composition. Ultimately, this dissertation is the attempt to develop an ethic that is universally applicable in the teaching of composition, without the need for a service learning environment or additional resources outside the university itself. To provide an overview of the project, the approach will be illustrated …

The Sequential Method: An Analysis Of Robert Jesselson’S Cello Pedagogy, Kalim D. Alvarez Campos

Theses and Dissertations

Dr. Robert Jesselson has made significant professional contributions as a cello performer and music educator. His pedagogical approaches are innovative in helping students overcome technical problems, building good work habits, instilling self- discipline, addressing kinesthetic issues, and improving practice techniques. His Sequential Method involves a systematic and logical progression of technical exercises, scale systems, etudes and repertoire. It is unique in its applications for teaching and learning left and right hand techniques, building a progression of etudes which address technical and musical issues and working through the cello repertoire in an organized and meaningful manner that is appropriate to the …

Anti-Sabbatarianism In Antebellum America: The Christian Quarrel Over The Sanctity Of Sunday, Kathryn Kaslow

Theses and Dissertations

In the first half of the 1800s, American Christians posed fundamental questions about the role of faith in daily life by debating blue laws, which restricted Sunday travel, mail delivery, and recreational activities on the basis of the Fourth Commandment. Historians have largely focused on how pro-blue law Christians, or Sabbatarians, answered these questions. They also present anti-Sabbatarian concerns as socially, economically, or politically motivated, largely ignoring religion. However, an examination of religious periodicals, convention reports, correspondence, and petitions shows that many anti-Sabbatarians did indeed frame their arguments in theological terms. Case studies from various faith traditions over four decades …

Sites Seen And Unseen: Mapping African American Women’S Public Memorialization, Alexandria Russell

Theses and Dissertations

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, black clubwomen began naming organizations after formerly enslaved women like Phillis Wheatley to keep their public memory alive. In doing so, they created a culture of recognition that acknowledged the organizational namesake as well as the contributions of members. Named memorialization celebrated the very best of African American women and continued to expand as Jim Crow laws encroached on black citizenship. Catalyzed by African American women while also supported by black journalists and local bureaucracies, named memorialization was the primary public history medium used to honor the legacies of African American women in the …

The Effect Of Visual Performance On Music Performance Evaluation In High School Marching Band, Kathryn D. Brimhall

Senior Theses

At marching band contests, bands are usually judged on both their music performance (ensemble, individual, and general effect) and visual performance (ensemble, individual, and general effect). Phenomena such as the McGurk effect (McGurk & MacDonald, 1976) indicate that people often prioritize visual information over aural information; however, until now there have not been empirical investigations of how this phenomenon might affect high school marching band evaluation. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of visual performance on the music performance evaluation of high school marching bands. To study this effect, I recruited college students who were randomly …

"This Dreadful Web": Alienation And Miscommunication In The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Debbie Clark

Senior Theses

Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame hinges on the idea of fate and characters being caught up in situations and fantasies that seem to be out of their control. Esmeralda is the fly caught in Frollo’s web, and yet her beauty and allure attracts and ensnares him in turn. Quasimodo is ensnared by Esmeralda’s beauty but also by society’s perceptions of him. The characters in Hunchback are so caught up in the webs of fantasies and perceptions spun by themselves or society that they can no longer communicate effectively with others, resulting in alienation from the very society …

Domestic Workers In Hong Kong: Their Stories, Self-Perception, And Their Portrayal In Hong Kong And Filipino Media, Lauren Ernst

Senior Theses

Foreign domestic helpers are one of the most common and unique sights in current-day Hong Kong. On the weekdays, they can be seen walking dogs, taking children to school, and completing chores around the house. On Sundays, they flood the streets in full force, relaxing and taking advantage of their one day off a week. This population faces many challenges during their time in Hong Kong – these challenges are modern as well as historical and include financial, governmental, emotional, and social challenges. Along with the challenges of day to day life, they also face challenges in that their stories …

Been An Empire, Olaf Tollefsen

Senior Theses

This paper summaries the content and form of the 2018 Printmaking BFA and Honors Thesis exhibition “Been and Empire”. It discuses influences, processes and the individual pieces found within the exhibition.

Perceptions Of Music Play Activities Performed By A Mother And Her Children, Alexandra R. Cotran

Senior Theses

The purpose of this research was to examine the music play activities performed by a mother Dr. Smith, and her children, John (age 3) and Pam (age 6). The guiding research questions were (a) What types of music play activities did Dr. Smith and her children perform when they were not in music play classes?; (b) How did Dr. Smith describe those activities?; (c) What were Dr. Smith’s observations of her children’s music development and learning?; (d) How did Dr. Smith use and adapt music play activities learned in class for her children at home or elsewhere?; (e) How did …

Modern American Cover Art: The Great Gatsby Through Time, Jessica Harrell

Senior Theses

Book jackets and cover art are, more than anything, an advertising tool used to attract consumers, promote book sales, and establish company identity. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a staple in the canon of American literature whose cover art has drastically transformed in the ninety years since its original publication. This thesis traces these changes over time, focusing specifically on publishing history, art history, American culture, and thematic interpretations. In doing so, I found that the most substantial influences on these covers were publishing house identity, design trends, and available artistic techniques. Ultimately, The Great Gatsby’s cover …

Emblematic Eating: Reading The Feasts Of The Iliad As Models For Social Order, Erin Welty

Senior Theses

This paper analyzes the Iliad’s feast scenes as sites that amplify the sociopolitical and economic tensions that permeate the wider plot of the epic. Through a literary analysis of the major feasting scenes of the Iliad, I show how the epic’s presentation of the dais collectively displays particular emblematic values of social equity and fair distribution of resources that manifests in the formulaic language that repeats in each feast scene and produces a sense of stable social organization. At the same time, however, I display how the narrative contexts of the feasts and the narrative presentation internal to …

Applying Jung's Archetypes And Theory Of The Collective Unconscious To Ovid's Metamorphoses, Lindsay Covington

Senior Theses

The premise of this thesis is to explore the concepts of Carl Jung’s collective unconscious and archetypes using myths from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In exploring the archetypes of the Animus, the Mother, the Hero, the Child, the Trickster, and Rebirth through these myths, I aim to demonstrate their relevance to modern psychology by directly connecting them to related psychopathologies as described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Behavioral and Mental Disorders V. Through this, the validity of the concept of the collective unconscious will be demonstrated in how the enduring archetypes of stories that are over two …

Personalizing The Wedding: A Cross-Cultural Study Of Wedding Motivations In The Keralite Indian And Southern American Communities, Juliet Joseph, Katherine Alexander

Senior Theses

The purpose of this senior thesis project was to qualitatively analyze weddings and bridal motivations within the Southern culture of America and the Keralite culture of India to better explore the role the wedding ceremony and its many components may play. As two undergraduate students of the University of South Carolina, we used contacts within our familial units and university organizations to explore our interests within these wedding cultures. Having had personal experiences as a guest to weddings within our own cultures, we observed the widely changing wedding culture which sparked in us a desire to explore more about the …

Conceptions Of Nietzsche In Popular Film And Television, Jeffrey Willicut

Senior Theses

There are few faces or names in the field of philosophy more recognizable than Friedrich Nietzsche’s. His cartoonish, bushy mustache and stern, unwelcoming brow appear in posters on the walls of angsty teens, in the street art and murals of trendy and upcoming urban neighborhoods, and even in the punishingly glossy pages of every high school history textbook. More recognizable still are his ideas, which have found their way into the ears or eyes of just about everyone in the Western world, whether they know it or not. His concept of the Übermensch, or his notion that God is dead, …

17 Days: Cross-Country With Social Media, Zachary Alvarado

Senior Theses

"Austin Prescott and Zach Alvarado travel from South Carolina to California using social media to find and communicate with hosts throughout the country..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8k6EQnW5D4

Costs of investment were weighed against capital contributions throughout our campaign. While the film serves to inspire, entertain, and inform, the paper dives deeper into the brand-building, cost-savings, and logistics of the trip. In the end, we more than doubled our initial investment and had an awesome time while doing it.

“Disability Is An Art…”: Disability As Discourse/Counter-Discourse, David Adelman

Theses and Dissertations

This is a multipart thesis focused on the intersection between disability and art. What does it mean as an artist to engage the topic of disability? Relatedly, how do artists, art objects, and various aspects of culture contend with or confront disability? It is my contention that many disability artworks work to produce mediations of embodied, lived experience for their audiences. In other words, this kind of art takes the concept of disability, which we might otherwise experience only intellectually, or at a remove, and make that concept material, corporeal, and sensuous – creating an object which makes power relations …

A Divisive Community: Race, Nation, And Loyalty In Santo Domingo, 1822 – 1844, Antony Wayne Keane-Dawes

Theses and Dissertations

On 8 February 1822, Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer entered Santo Domingo and ended the short-lived experiment of a moderate republic and the triumph of a popular and radical vision of nationhood. For the next two decades, this unified Haitian Republic faced the scrutiny of Spanish, French, and British slave empires, fueled by the accounts and reports of those Dominicans who rejected this change in events. Using government correspondences, reports, pamphlets, and proclamations, this study argues that the Haitian Unification affected Dominican political allegiances and drove white elites to support Spanish monarchy in contrast to those in Santo Domingo who supported …

The Tie That Binds: The History, Conductors, And Music Of The Mystic Area Ecumenical Choir Festival, Mark Daniel Merritt

Theses and Dissertations

The Mystic Area Ecumenical Choir Festival, which began in 1968, is now in its 50th year. The festival is sponsored each year by the Mystic Area Ecumenical Council. The festival combines multi-generational choirs from numerous churches in and around the coastal villages of Noank and Mystic in Connecticut. Numerous nationally recognized choral directors, composers, and clinicians have been invited to guest conduct the choirs of the festival. For festival milestones, new choral pieces are commissioned.

This research project explores the history of church choirs in New England, beginning with mandated singing of metrical psalms, the singing schools which started in …

Delphine Ugalde: Defying Gender Norms Both On And Off The Stage In 19th Century Paris, Michael T. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The social and professional networks that grew out of Paris’ vibrant theatrical and salon culture in the late 19th century supported a number of female artists in somewhat “non-traditional” roles. While the careers and influence of artists such as the sculptor Hélène Bertaux and singer-composer Pauline Viardot have been thoroughly researched in recent years, little attention has been paid to the life and work of the coloratura soprano, actor, pedagogue, and composer Delphine Ugalde. During her performing career, Ugalde was highly regarded for her ability to portray both male and female characters. After retiring from the stage, she engaged in …

Wave Of Arrival, Cathleen Bonner

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses poetry to explore the influences of space and geographical location on subjective perception and vision. More specifically, it aims to use landscape to observe the visible and invisible qualities of a geographical space, and investigate the ways in which perception of those spatial boundaries can be used to create self-portraits. It also aims to revise traditional, romanticized versions of the American West as manifested in poetry and photography in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To do so, it focuses its attention on the man-altered landscape, rather than the pure, wild landscape as a space barricaded …

Of Cannonades And Battle Cries: Aurality, The Battle Of The Alamo, And Memory, Michelle E. Herbelin

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis takes a sensory-historical approach to the 1836 Siege and Battle of the Alamo, its inscription into history and its propagation as a touchstone of Texas’ memory and identity. My focus is on the auditory, an especially important sensory experience to consider. Among the many auditory tactics deployed during the siege, the storming itself took place in the pre-dawn darkness, and many of the survivors’ accounts were from women and children among the garrison, who were sequestered away from the visual experience of the battle. Flooding from the accounts of survivors into the popular imagination of Texans, the sounds …

Tertian Relationships In Three Choral Selections By Dan Forrest: A Conductor’S Analysis, Lindsey Cope

Theses and Dissertations

Dan Forrest is a composer who has gained attention in the choral world. His compositions like Venite Adoremus, Abide, and arrangements like A Mighty Fortress is Our God exhibit representative characteristics of his compositional voice. This document will serve choral conductors as a resource for understanding the compositional aspects of Forrest’s music and application for rehearsing his music. By examining three of his compositions of contrasting styles, this study will illuminate a variety of his compositional traits and examine their use in the three selections. Tertian relationships are pervasive in Forrest’s music in the formal designs, harmonic structure, and key …

(Re) Thinking The Past Through Performance: The (Re) Construction Of Militant Childhood Imaginaries In The Post-Dictatorship Of Argentina’S Cultural Production From 2003-2015, Stephanie Rubi Orozco

Theses and Dissertations

Burdened by the atrocities of Argentina’s coup d’état (1976-1982), many children of persecuted parents were forced to live as clandestine hideaways. In recent decades, adult survivors who experience the dictatorship as clandestine children have become primary protagonists, seeking to (re)construct past experiences through the creation of visual and textual productions. In attempt to (re)create their experience in hiding; such adults propose an alternative non-conventional image of a witnessing childhood under military rule as the child of prosecuted parents. For such children, life in secrecy meant having to find refuge from state officials seeking to eliminate their parents. It demanded strict …

“Poetry Doesn’T Restore Ecosystems”: Garbage And Poetry In The Anthropocene, Joseph Russell Hendryx

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the representation of material garbage in American poetry, from the development of industrial waste management in the late nineteenth century to the present day ecological crises. In the early to mid-twentieth century, garbage serves as a new Romantic nature, allowing poems’ speakers to reflect on themselves and their society through this trashed landscape. The presence of the material garbage itself, however, was never a central concern and continued to be hidden behind its various metaphorical utilizations. A.R. Ammons’s poem Garbage opened up the poetic conversation by searching for a more nuanced and worldly treatment of garbage. The …

All The Blood In Love, Maya Marshall

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses poetry to explore my history and those of my matriarchs now that I find myself at the end of the line. The writing of this manuscript entailed interviewing my parents and their parents; researching Augusta, Ga and Brooklyn, NY have been particularly helpful in reconstructing the worlds my matriarchs inhabited from the 1940s to present. The work includes various characters—some amalgams representing my mother and grandmother—others, perhaps less realized currently, employ archetypes in an effort to turn their referents to unveil some truths about what it is to be an American. They include American Girl, Abiku (in …

The Attitudes And Perceptions Of Undergraduate Non-Keyboard Music Majors Toward The Usage Of Functional Keyboard Harmony In The Group Piano Curriculum At The University Of South Carolina School Of Music, Katherine A. Chandler

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes and perceptions of undergraduate non-keyboard music majors toward functional keyboard harmony in the group piano curriculum at the University of South Carolina School of Music. Sixty-five (65) undergraduate music majors who were enrolled in music degrees in the spring 2018 semester at the University of South Carolina School of Music completed the survey, for an 82% completion rate. The questionnaire had six primary focuses: (1) demographic data and general information of undergraduate non-keyboard music students, (2) students‟ previous music education experiences, (3) students‟ previous harmony education experiences and perceived comprehension …

Building Community Within The Writing Center, Candace Cooper

Theses and Dissertations

Since their inception, Writing Centers have had the purpose of helping students with their writing, and they have met this goal by using collaborative learning and by talking to students about their writing. While the form of the center has changed over time, its purpose has not, and to better help Writing Centers achieve their purpose, they should focus on building community both amongst their tutors and between their tutors and tutees. A greater sense of community, welcome, and harmony will make the center a better place to work for the tutors, and it will make students/clients will feel more …

Through The Spaceship’S Window: A Bio-Political Reading Of 20th Century Latin American And Anglo-Saxon Science Fiction, Juan David Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of a bio-political reading of a wide variety of Latin American, American, and British works of science fiction, written from 1919 to 1989. In this project I have analyzed how works of science fiction in different historical and geographical contexts deal with issues such as eugenics, racism, fear of the alien, the threat of nuclear global conflict, etc. I have made a conscious effort to demonstrate that Latin America has been part of global phenomena such as the Cold War, and has produced a wide and rich corpus of science fiction works that deal with these global …